Web materials, e.g. paper, plastic films, foils, fabric and so on, are in great extent used as semi-manufacture for further processing or use for example as packing material. The web material is delivered in rolls and normally is placed in a roll stand, from which the material is guided into a converting machine. The starting end of the web material has to be thread through various stations which is both time consuming and a tedious work, which moreover has to be repeated every time a new roll of web material is placed in the roll stand.